One species I wish would become extinct is the plastic bag. Supermarket shoppers in the Dominican Republic are used to the post-checkout ritual: a couple of friendly young men bagging your groceries for you, using a shocking number of plastic bags in the process. No alternatives are offered. Packers often use one bag per product, and double and even triple-bag the heavier items.

It’s common to arrive home from your weekly supermarket visit, unpack the groceries, and find that you are the proud owner of a mountain of fifty plastic bags. Multiply that by the number of visits you make to the supermarket each year, and by the total number of supermarket shoppers in the country, and you have a collection of bags the size of Belgium.

All over the world, plastic bags are also still very much in evidence, but in some countries there are serious moves to minimise their use, mainly due to increased consumer awareness and environmental consciousness.

Many supermarket chains in Europe and North America charge shoppers a small amount per bag, or discount the equivalent sum for each bag that the customer re-uses. Others sell and encourage the use of durable, multiple-use shopping bags. Some disposable bags are made of biodegradable plastic, and sturdy brown paper bags were at one time widespread – especially in North America, if 1970s TV shows are anything to go by. In the old days, supermarkets would also stack used cardboard boxes near the exit, and many customers would use them to pack their groceries.

Some countries, like South Africa, Taiwan and Bangladesh, have banned plastic bags altogether, and a number of towns and cities in countries like the US and UK have declared themselves “plastic-bag free”.

But why all this hate for plastic bags?

When buried in the soil they remain there for hundreds of years, and the high volume being used on a daily basis means that they are choking up garbage landfill sites.

If burned, plastic releases toxic fumes, adding to air pollution and harming human health.

On the aesthetic front – and this is very important in a country that depends on tourism – plastic bags blow away and litter the landscape, or end up in rivers or the sea, where they harm thousands of marine animals each year.

This is not too healthy for humans either. There are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

Only one or two per cent of all the plastic bags used worldwide are recycled. In the US alone, an estimated 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away each year. This is impossible to visualise.

The only real answer is to reduce plastic bag use – turn them into an endangered species, as it were. The difference between this and other environmental challenges is that it’s not that difficult.

What we can do:

• Get a couple of durable shopping bags like the Dominican tote bag, and always remember to take them shopping with you.

• Supermarkets are always asking for customer feedback – make a point of mentioning the excess use of plastic bags and lack of alternatives when this happens. If you wish, approach the supermarket management or parent company outlining your concerns, always offering constructive solutions. Let us know what reactions you get.

• If you are accepting plastic bags, try and minimise the number the packer uses, without being confrontational or preachy. Explain why you are concerned about the over-use of these bags.

• Of course, unless they are banned altogether we will always have some plastic bags, but we can re-use them at home in all sorts of ways, especially as bin-liners. Keep a couple in your handbag so you can use them when shopping. You can even take them back to the supermarket with you on your next visit.

Good luck!

I'm from Canada and now living in Santiago. I have 4-5 recyclable sturdy grocery bags which I brought with me when I moved to RD. The 1st time I brought them with us to La Sirena grocery store I was surprised to have to leave them at the entrance. I figured, no problem, we'll get them back when we get to the cash register which we did. But the funny part (or not so funy part) is that when we gave them to the wrappers, they put them aside continued to use the plastic bags as described in the initial post. Then, when they finished using the plastic bags, they put them into my recyclable bags, argh !!!! What's the point !!! I guess as you say education is key and I will make of point of suggesting the reduced use of plastic bags to La Sirena in their suggestion box.

I Live In Florida, When I Got Home From The Grocery Ritual (jaja) I Just Take Most Of The Bags Back.......because At Home I Recycle Everything, But With The Bags I Just Take It Back To Them, Another Thing Is The Eggs Carton And Trays Foam I Just Take It Back To Grocery Too!!! Come Girls, We've Got To Save Our Planet!!!!!!! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!!